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GMB members in councils and schools vote to strike on 10 July

With other unions involved too, the 10 July looks like being the second biggest dispute ever with up to 2 million workers on strike says GMB. GMB has announced an official strike in local authorities and schools across England, Wales and Northern Irela …

With other unions involved too, the 10 July looks like being the second biggest dispute ever with up to 2 million workers on strike says GMB.

GMB has announced an official strike in local authorities and schools across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This follows a ballot of members that saw a 73% vote in favour of going on strike. The strike is for 24 hours on 10 July.

The ballot was conducted by the Electoral Reform Society and they reported 26,281 votes in favour of strike action, 9,799 against and 51 spoilt papers. Turnout was 23% which is slightly above average.

GMB National Secretary, Brian Strutton, said “Our members have spoken loud and clear and said they want to go on strike.

We have tried sensible discussions, we’ve sought to negotiate reasonably, willing to accept ACAS arbitration rather than go on strike – but to everything we’ve tried the employers have said “no”. So we have no choice.

GMB members serving school meals, cleaning streets, emptying bins, looking after the elderly, helping children in classrooms and in all the other vital roles serving our communities are fed up with being ignored and undervalued.

Their pay has gone up only 1% since 2010 and in October even the national minimum wage will overtake local authority pay scales. Their case is reasonable, the employers won’t listen and don’t care, no wonder they have turned to strike action as the only way of making their voices heard. With other unions involved too, the 10 July looks like being the second biggest dispute ever with up to 2 million workers on strike.”

Walton Pantland

South African trade unionist living in Glasgow. Loves whisky, wine, running and the great outdoors. Walton did an MA in Industrial Relations at Ruskin, Oxford, and is interested in how trade unions use new technology to organise.